1 End of tax-free living in Saudi Arabia (The
Guardian) Tax-free living will soon be a thing of the past for Saudis after its
cabinet on Monday approved an IMF-backed value-added tax to be imposed across
the Gulf following an oil slump.
A 5% levy will apply to certain goods following an
agreement with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council in June last year. Residents
of the energy-rich region had long enjoyed a tax-free and heavily subsidised
existence but the collapse in crude prices since 2014 sparked cutbacks and a
search for new revenue.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter and
the largest economy in the Arab region. It froze major building projects, cut
cabinet ministers’ salaries and imposed a wage freeze on civil servants to cope
with last year’s record budget deficit of $97bn. It also made unprecedented
cuts to fuel and utilities subsidies.
The kingdom is broadening its investment base and
boosting other non-oil income as part of economic diversification efforts and
aims to balance its budget by 2020. The move is in line with an International
Monetary Fund recommendation for Gulf states to impose revenue-raising measures
including excise and value-added taxes to help their adjustment to lower crude
prices which have slowed regional growth.
2 Apple returns to growth with iPhone 7 (BBC) Apple
has reported its highest quarterly revenue, as the iPhone 7 helped it return to
a growth in sales in the final three months of 2016. In its first full quarter
since the iPhone 7's release, Apple reported net sales of $78.4bn, up 3% on the
same period a year ago.
Chief executive Tim Cook said Apple had sold
"more iPhones than ever before". It had also set new records for
revenues from its Mac, Apple Watch and services divisions, he said. Apple had
suffered three quarters in a row of falling revenue as intensifying
competition, particularly from Chinese rivals, hit sales of its flagship
iPhone.
The firm said it had sold 78.3m iPhones in the three
months to 31 December, up from 74.8m a year before. It reported revenue of
$54.3bn from iPhone sales, plus $7.2bn from the Mac, $5.5bn from the iPad,
$7.1bn from services and $4.0bn from other products, including the Apple Watch.
However, Apple warned that iPhone sales would miss
analysts' expectations in the current quarter. It suggested that customers were
holding back on phone upgrades in anticipation of the launch of the tenth
anniversary iPhone later this year.
3 California plans sanctuary for immigrants (San
Francisco Chronicle) Democrats in the California Senate have ramped up their
fight against President Donald Trump, advancing bills that would create a
statewide sanctuary for people in the country illegally, provide money to pay
lawyers for immigrants facing deportation and hamper any attempt to create a
Muslim registry.
The moves in the nation's largest state — home to an
estimated 2.3 million immigrants without legal authorization — came days after
Trump launched his crackdown on immigration and sanctuary cities across the
nation. The city of San Francisco sued Trump on Tuesday, claiming his executive
order that would cut funding from sanctuary cities is unconstitutional and a
"severe invasion of San Francisco's sovereignty."
San Francisco receives about $1.2 billion a year in
federal funding for services that include housing, health and social services,
and homelessness. In Sacramento, Democrats on the state Senate Public Safety
Committee voted along party lines to prohibit state and local law enforcement
from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
California voted overwhelmingly against Trump in
November, and Democratic legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown have loudly
vowed to resist the Republican president. Many of California's largest cities —
including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento — already have sanctuary
policies that prohibit police from cooperating with immigration agents.
The sanctuary legislation now goes to the Senate Appropriations
Committee. It's unclear how it might fare if it reaches the Assembly. Speaker
Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, has resisted Trump's policies, but the Assembly
also has a bloc of moderate lawmakers in swing districts who have balked at
legislation favored by the more liberal Senate.
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